Colour of Cats. 45 
be a male, while tortoiseshell and white may be of either sex. 
The blacks are cases of melanism, similar to those occurring 
among leopards; and there may be trué albinos, but many white 
cats have normally coloured eyes. Very considerable variations 
in structure, which have arisen spontaneously under domestica- 
tion, can be, and are, as is well known, perpetuated. This is 
observable in cattle, sheep, fowls, pigeons, rabbits, and notably 
dogs; neither has the cat escaped. The peculiar “tailless” 
variety of the Isle of Man is merely an abnormal form arising 
from an accidental variation, established by breeding within 
narrow limits. 
The colour of the cat, when white, is often correlated with 
some structural peculiarities of the auditory apparatus, as de- 
scribed by Mr. Lawson Tait, in an interesting paper read before 
the Birmingham Philosophical Society, 11th October, 1883. He 
arrived at the following conclusions: “That no other animal but 
the cat is subject to congenital deafness; and only those that 
are entirely white are so affected. While some white cats with 
the ordinary yellow eyes are deaf, some blue-eyed white cats can 
hear perfectly well. On the other hand, a white female kitten, 
with yellow eyes, which appeared among those bred by himself, 
turned out to be absolutely deaf. Another, a male, that came 
into his possession, had supernumerary toes; one eye was blue, 
the other yellow, and the animal was totally deaf.” 
Mr. Tait described him as an interesting cat. His deafness 
was solely tympanic, for his intelligence could be reached by 
impressions conveyed by vibrations of solid media. Thus, a 
sharp stamp on the floor would attract his attention, even if 
he were seated on a chair or table. This cat was subject to 
epilepsy (in common with every kind of white animal Mr. Tait 
has kept as a pet), and the attacks came on during sleep, the 
first symptom being a disposition to seize his tail and bite off 
the end, whereby that member became considerably shortened. 
A carefully conducted autopsy revealed triangular perforations 
of the tympanic membranes—no doubt, congenital lesions— 
while all the cochlear structures were normal, as also were the 
